Right uosticam inves inatursulium hum aussimporum nonsici traetius. Horesidieme ta, quem forum ela Satust qua publin Itam nos paturid iendero morum ca; esit, nortiam lius nonsulocre non pertelutum o nos Satust qua publin Itam nos paturid iendero morum ca; esit, nortiam lius nonsulocre non pertelutum o nos
gentlemen – and some women – of means. Many did little else throughout the year as they moved from estate to estate enjoying the hospitality of an elite, interconnected upper class circle. And when the shooting was over, they would set off for sunnier climes to hunt big game. In his book Autumns in Argyleshire with Rod and Gun (1900), A E Gathorne Hardy recalled that?Gaick in?, with a ‘most commodious lodge and a nice stretch of fishing’, cost four guns, killing over 1,500 brace of grouse, £600 for ten days in August 1872 (the equivalent of £? today). By comparison, the cost of renting Glen Ogil Lodge and grouse moor in Angus for one day – the Glorious Twelfth – in 2013 was £55,000 (update to 2015 price). The obsession prevails today. The most significant factor in fuelling Victorian enthusiasm for the Highlands was the native red deer. But the 19th century obsession with deer hunting needs to be considered within its rich historical context, which dates back to ancient times. The nobility of the stag, the thrill of the chase and the feasting and merriment that accompanied the great deer hunts are celebrated in the visual and literary culture of the Gael, from carvings on Celtic and Pictish stones, hunting songs and tales of the Fiana, to ballads and laments, Duncan Ban Macintyre’s lyrical poems expressing the hunter’s affinity with Nature, and vivid passages in the novels and verse of Sir Walter Scott. Since the early Middle Ages, the aristocrats of Highland society were honoured in the panegyric poetry of the clan bards as Sealgair Sithne – ‘the hunter of deer’. Deer hunting had been a royal sport since ancient times, the king granting privileged rights of forestry. The hunts traditionally took the form of a chase or a drive, the latter more ancient practice being a deer hunt on a vast scale, involving multitudes of men and dogs. These tinchels, as they were known (from the Gaelic tainchell), were occasions of regal magnificence, requiring weeks of preparation. Days before the slaughter, a huge cordon of men operating as beaters (also called tinchels) would round-up the beasts from the surrounding hills. On the alloted day, the deer were corralled down a narrow defile towards an enclosure known as an elrick (eileirg), where concealed huntsmen awaited them ‘with gunnes, arrows, durks and daggers’. Tinchels were regarded with suspicion by the government, as such large Highland Retreats 25
24 The Invasion of the Sassenachs
© 2017 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
© 2017 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.